Such a majestic creature!!! Words really can’t describe how it feels to be close to a big lion like this, or to have them walk by the vehicle so close you could reach out and touch their mane (but you don’t of course, because that would be amazingly foolish!)
I spent part of my last game drive at Chitwa Chitwa with a gorgeous male leopard called Hosana. I don’t often have time to catch any of the virtual safari shows that are shown on Twitter or Facebook, but one of the times I did check in briefly, before my last trip, he was featured, so seeing him “in person” so to speak was quite cool. Kind of the same feeling I get when I watch a nature show filmed somewhere I’ve been, and I actually recognize a landmark; a little point of connection to a place far away, but close to my heart.
Getting three images edited today doesn’t seem like much, but it was more than I had anticipated I would be able to do, so I’ll take it.
I was just looking at my calendar and realizing it is only 6 weeks now until end of term. Then, I can spend a day lazing around around these lions. Until then, work / school / repeat.
Part of an enormous herd of elephants seen in the Maasai Mara. We basically just parked the vehicle in a clearing surrounded by fever trees and watched group after group meander by, grazing, finding great scratching post trees and visiting amongst other family groups.
Seeing wildebeest crossing the Mara River was one of the things I was most excited about about during my time in Kenya, but given how short my stay was, it was not something that was guaranteed. I did luck out though and see a small herd cross the river, and was it ever hectic when it finally happened.
It’s not at all like what you see on the nature shows, at least the day that I was there. There had to be 30 to 40 vehicles in the area and with some people, like us, there for close to five hours before the action started. It was a really fun atmosphere though and I spent the afternoon chatting with my guides, enjoying a lovely picnic lunch, and chatting with the people in the neighbouring vehicle. The river crossings this year would have been a much different scenario with all the travel restrictions; the animals just having to contend with the crocodiles, lions and hyenas without a bunch of spectators.
The poor little gazelle in the first image though…. it was picked off by a crocodile not long after I took this picture. The gazelles head into the river alone, to avoid being trampled by the larger wildebeest and zebra, but that makes them very easy targets.